Daner - Definition and Overview

The Daner were an ancient North Germanic tribe residing in Terra Scania and on the Danish islands. They were not mentioned by Tacitus, whose famous work Germania mentions the Gothones (Geats and/or Goths?) and the Suiones (Swedes). They seem to be, however, mentioned by Jordanes, as the Dani, and also by Procopius.

The name Daner is the etymological root of Dane.

Jordanes maintains that the Dani were the of the same stock as the Suetidi (Swedes, Suithiod?) and expelled the Heruli and took their lands.

If Tacitus simply did not overlook the Dani, and if Jordanes's information was correct, it is possible that they first appeared, as an off-shoot of the Swedes, sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. This would have been about the time that Dan Mikilláti gave his name to the Danes, according to Snorri Sturluson in the Ynglinga saga.

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